The army promoted Scott to lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Artillery Regiment in July 1812. Scott served primarily on the Niagara Campaign front in the War of 1812. He took command of an American landing party during the Battle of Queenston Heights (Ontario, Canada) on October 13, 1812. Most New York militia members refused to cross into Canada in support of the invasion, and the British compelled New York militia commander Brigadier GeneralWilliam Wadsworth and Scott, the Regular Army commander, to surrender.

The British held Scott as a prisoner of war. The British considered Irish-American prisoners of war British subjects and traitors and executed 13 such Americans captured at Queenstown Heights. The British paroled and released Scott in a prisoner exchange. Upon release, Scott returned to Washington to pressure the Senate to take punitive action against British prisoners of war in retaliation for the British executions of Irish-American soldiers. The Senate wrote a bill after this urging, but President James Madison believed the summary execution of prisoners of war unworthy of civilized nations and so refused to enforce the act.

Scott was promoted to colonel in March 1813.[4] Scott planned and led the capture of Fort George, Ontario, on the Niagara River. By crossing the Niagara and landing on the Lake Ontario shore, Scott forced the British to abandon Fort George. Colonel Scott was wounded in this battle, which is considered among the best planned and executed U.S. operations of the war.

Scott was promoted to brigadier general on March 19, 1814. He was only 27 years old at the time; one of the youngest generals in the history of the U.S. Army.

General Scott earned the nickname of "Old Fuss and Feathers" for his insistence on military appearance and discipline in the Army, which consisted mostly of volunteers. In his own campaigns, Scott preferred to use a core of Army regulars whenever possible. Scott perennially concerned himself with the welfare of his men, prompting an early quarrel with General James Wilkinson over an unhealthy bivouac on land Wilkinson owned. During an early outbreak of cholera at a post under his command, Scott, alone among officers, stayed to nurse the stricken enlisted men.[1]

Scott commanded the 1st Brigade, and was instrumental in the decisive American success at the Battle of Chippawa on July 5, 1814.

Scott had a major role in the bloody Battle of Lundy's Lane on July 25, and suffered serious wounds. The American commander, Major General Jacob Brown, and the British-Canadian commander, Lieutenant General Gordon Drummond, were also wounded.

For his valor at Lundy's Lane, Scott received a brevet (i.e. an honorary promotion) to major general to date from July 25, 1814. However, the severity of his wounds prevented his return to active duty for the remainder of the war.[5]

In 1815 Scott was admitted as an honorary member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati in recognition of his service in the War of 1812.[6]

Brigadier General Winfield Scott supervised the preparation of the first standard drill regulations for the Army and headed a postwar officer retention selection board in 1815. He also served as president of Board of Tactics in 1815.[4]

Scott visited Europe to study French military methods in 1815/1816.[4] He translated several military manuals of Napoleon I of France into English.

Scott held regional command in the Division of the North in 1816. He married Maria D. Mayo (1789-June 10, 1862[7]) in 1817.[4]

Scott served as president of the Board of Tactics in 1821 and 1824.[4]

Cholera among his reinforcing troops prevented Scott from taking field command during the Black Hawk War. In late November and early December 1832, Scott organized U.S. Army troops for possible enforcement of PresidentAndrew Jackson's authority during the Nullification Crisis. In late 1832 and early 1833 Scott served as an emissary from President Jackson to South Carolina. His tactful diplomacy and the use of his troops in suppressing a major fire in Charleston did much to defuse the crisis.[3]

Scott commanded the field forces in Second Seminole War and Creek War in 1836. Scott was recalled to Washington due to the highly politicized nature of the tactics he employed and the huge expenditures incurred in policing the frontier, compounded by controversies between regular army and local militia officers. Brigadier General Edmund Meredith Shackelford was appointed commander in the area by President Jackson until Brigadier General Thomas Jesup could arrive. A court of inquiry later cleared Scott of wrongdoing in the Seminole and Creek operations.

Scott felt that his recall was a political intrigue. In 1845, Shackelford wrote to Jackson for a clarifying statement that Shackelford had had no part in Scott's recall to Washington.

Scott assumed command of the Eastern Division in 1837. Scott was responsible for maintaining order on the Canadian border, where the Patriot War threatened to entangle the U.S. in the Upper Canada Rebellion.

Arriving at New Echota, Cherokee Nation, on April 6, 1838, Scott immediately divided the Cherokee Nation into three military districts. He designated May 26, 1838 as the beginning date for the first phase of the removal. The first phase involved the Cherokees in Georgia. Scott wanted Army regulars rather than Georgia militia for this operation, because the militia had personal gains at stake; some claimed Cherokee land.[9] The promised regulars did not arrive in time, so Scott proceeded with 4,000 Georgia militia.

The moral implications of the Jackson-Van Buren policies did not make Scott's role easy. Representative (and ex-President) John Quincy Adams opposed the removal, imputing it to "Southern politicians and land grabbers;" many Americans agreed.[10] Scott reassured the Cherokee people of proper treatment. In his instructions to the militia, Scott called any acts of harshness and cruelty "abhorrent to the generous sympathies of the whole American people." Scott also admonished his troops not to fire on any fugitives they might apprehend unless they should "make stand and resist." Scott detailed help to render the weak and infirm: "Horses or ponies should be used to carry Cherokees too sick or feeble to march." Also, "Infants, superannuated persons, lunatics, and women in a helpless condition with all, in the removal [deserve] peculiar attention, which the brave and humane will seek to adopt to the necessities of the several cases."[10]

Scott's good intentions, however, did not adequately protect the Cherokees from terrible abuses, especially at the hands of "lawless rabble that followed on the heels of the soldiers to loot and pillage."[10] At the end of the first phase of the removal in August 1838, 3,000 Cherokees left Georgia and Tennessee by water toward Oklahoma, but camps still retained another 13,000. By the intercession of Chief John Ross in Washington, these Cherokees traveled "under their own auspices, unarmed, and free of supervision by militiamen or regulars."[11]

Though government contractors, steamboat owners, and others who stood to profit protested, Scott carried out this new policy. Ex-President Jackson demanded of the Attorney General the replacement of Scott and the arrest of Chief Ross.[12]

Within months, Scott captured (or killed) every Cherokee in north Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama who could not escape. His troops reportedly rounded up the Cherokee and held them in rat-infested stockades with little food. Private John G. Burnett later wrote, "Future generations will read and condemn the act and I do hope posterity will remember that private soldiers like myself, and like the four Cherokees who were forced by General Scott to shoot an Indian Chief and his children, had to execute the orders of our superiors. We had no choice in the matter."[13][14]

More than four thousand Cherokee died in this confinement before ever beginning the trip west. As the first groups herded west died in huge numbers in the heat, the Cherokee pleaded with Scott to postpone the second phase of the removal until autumn, and he complied. Determined to accompany them as an observer, Scott left Athens, Georgia, on October 1, 1838 and traveled with the first "company" of a thousand people, including both Cherokees and black slaves, as far as Nashville.[15] The Cherokee removal later became known as the Trail of Tears.[16]

When Brigadier General Winfield Scott reached Nashville, superiors abruptly ordered him to return to Washington to deal with troubles on the Canadian border. On this assignment, he helped defuse tensions between officials of the state of Maine and the British colony of New Brunswick in the undeclared and bloodless Aroostook War in March 1839.

On June 25, 1841 the Commanding General of the United States Army, Major General Alexander Macomb, died. As he was the senior ranking officer in the Army, Scott was the obvious choice to succeed Macomb. Scott assumed office as commanding general on July 5, 1841 and was promoted to the rank of major general, then the highest rank in the Army, with the date of rank of June 25, 1841.

During the Mexican-American War, Major General Scott was appointed by President James K. Polk to lead an army of regulars and volunteers to the Rio Grande for a hasty campaign.[18] During the planning and initial movement, worsening political tensions between Scott and president, led to a very public shellacking and relief of Scott as field commander. With reluctance, Zachary Taylor was charged with leading the charge to the Rio Grande. While Taylor was largely successful in securing the northeastern provinces of Mexico after war broke out, it became obvious by the mid-1846, the Mexicans would not surrender the captured territories without a direct assault on their capital. Deeming an overland campaign from northeastern Mexico unfeasible (required marching over 900 km of arid Mexican desert), Scott planned an expedition to Gulf port city of Vera Cruz. As Taylor (also a Whig) gained notoriety for victories in northeastern Mexico, Polk became increasingly reluctant to posture Taylor for a presidential run post-bellum. Further, Polk and his cabinet had reasonable doubts whether Taylor could lead the complex operation. Left to choose between Taylor and Scott, Polk reluctantly chose Scott at the behest of his cabinet.[19] Even while Scott was en route to the theater of operations, Polk continued to search for a fellow Democrat to command the expedition in lieu of Scott. Senator William O. Butler and Robert Patterson were both selected as early options, but neither were deemed acceptable by Congress. Patterson, who was Irish-born and not eligible to be President, was dismissed early on as a suitable choice. Butler's capacity to command an army was questionable at best, never seeing combat and lacking experience in the regular Army.

Landing at Veracruz, Scott, assisted by one of his staff officers, Captain Robert E. Lee, and perhaps inspired by William H. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico, followed the approximate route taken by Hernán Cortés in 1519, and assaulted Mexico City. Scott's opponent in this campaign, Mexican president and general Antonio López de Santa Anna, had just suffered a crushing defeat at Buena Vista and faced impending revolt by the Mexican populace. Santa Anna chose to meet Scott after the landing, assuming the American force to be significantly degraded after a costly offense on the well-fortified Vera Cruz. Despite high heat, rains, and difficult terrain, Scott won the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras/Padierna, Churubusco, and Molino del Rey. He then assaulted the fort of Chapultepec on September 13, 1847, after which the city surrendered.

When the Duke of Wellington, victor of Waterloo, learned that Scott had succeeded against alarming odds in capturing Mexico City, he proclaimed Scott, "the greatest living general."[20]

The San Patricio men were deserters in action, and had traitorously joined the enemy army. There was no question about this, and the punishment for desertion and treason was death. Scott's army was still facing a dangerous enemy and possible insurgency, so he placed the prisoners before courts martial to have them settle it.[21] Eisenhower says the men were tried in two groups. The trials were conducted fairly by Brevet Colonel John Garland and by Colonel Bennet Riley. Because all the men captured were wearing Mexican uniforms, they were found guilty and sentenced to hang.

This created a serious problem for Scott. He was troubled by the sweep of guilty verdicts. He did not want to alienate the Mexican public, who by now had made the deserters national heroes.[21] Nor did he want to encourage insurgency among the Mexican people that would weaken his pacification program in progress. He also knew that the deserters were Irish-born Catholics, who had deserted Taylor's army because they allegedly felt mistreated and had witnessed atrocities "sufficient to make Heaven weep" against fellow Catholics, the Mexicans.[22][23] Scott believed he needed to confirm the trials and sentences. He concluded that some men deserved less punishment, and sat up nights attempting to find excuses to avoid the universal application of capital punishment.[24] In the end he approved the death penalty for 50 of the 72 San Patricios, but later pardoned five and reduced the sentence of fifteen others, including the ringleader, Sergeant John Riley.[25] This left 30 slated for execution, 16 of whom were hanged on September 10, 1847. Four were hanged the next day, and the remainder assigned to Colonel William Harney for execution at some later date.

Engraving of Winfield Scott

On the day of execution, Harney ordered each deserter placed on a mule cart with a rope around his neck, fastening each rope to a mass gibbet. Then, during the battle of Chapultepec, just as the American flag was about to rise above the walls of the Mexican citadel, he ordered the executioners to give the mules a whack, causing the beasts to lurch forward, leaving the deserters in mid-air, dangling "en masse."[26] Some argue that this adversely affected Scott's record, as the events violated numerous Articles of War. Eisenhower, however, attributes the incident to Harney.[26]

During political intrigues later in his life, Scott ignored the events, stating "not one [Irishman] ... was ever known to turn his back upon the enemy or friend."[27][28][29]

As military commander of Mexico City, he was held in high esteem by Mexican civil and American authorities alike, primarily owing to his pacification policy and fairness. For example, when he drew his "martial law order" to be issued and enforced in Mexico (to prevent looting, rape, murder, etc.), all offenders, both Mexicans and Americans, were treated equally.[30]

Apart from his military career, Scott's vanity, as well as his corpulence, led to a catch phrase that was to haunt him for the remainder of his political life. Complaining about the division of command between himself and General Taylor, in a letter to Secretary of WarWilliam Marcy, Scott wrote of not wishing to "have a fire in his rear (from Washington) while he met a fire in front of the Mexicans."[31] This offended Marcy and also Polk. In another letter, Scott wrote that a letter from Marcy arrived as "at about 6 pm as I sat down to take a hasty plate of soup" .[31] The Polk administration, eager to embarrass Scott, promptly published the letter, and the cryptic phrase appeared in political cartoons and comic songs for the rest of his life.

More grievously rent by sectional rivalries than the Democrats, the Whigs balloted fifty-three times before nominating Scott. The delegates then unanimously approved the platform except for the central plank that pledged "acquiescence" in the Compromise of 1850, "the act known as the Fugitive Slave law included." The plank carried by a vote of 212 to 70, opposition coming largely from Scott's supporters. The old soldier, faced with disarray in the Whig ranks, sought out to resolve his dilemma by announcing, "I accept the nomination with the resolutions annexed." To this, antislavery Whigs rejoined, "We accept the candidate, but we spit on the platform."[32]

Scott's anti-slavery reputation undermined his support in the South, while the Party's pro-slavery platform depressed turnout in the North, and Scott's opponent was a Mexican-American War veteran as well. Pierce was elected in an overwhelming win, leaving Scott with the electoral votes of only Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee.[32]

Despite his defeat in the election, Scott was still a popular national hero. In February 1855, by a special act of Congress, Scott was given a brevet promotion to the rank of lieutenant general, making him only the second person in U.S. military history, after George Washington, to hold that rank.

In 1859, Scott traveled to the Pacific Northwest to settle a dispute with the British over San Juan Island, which had escalated to the so-called Pig War. The old general established a good rapport with the British, and brought about a peaceful resolution.

When the American Civil War began in the spring of 1861, Scott was 74 years old and suffering numerous health problems, including gout, rheumatism, and dropsy. He was also extremely overweight and unable to mount a horse or review troops.

As Scott could not lead an army into battle, he offered the command of the Federal army to Colonel Robert E. Lee on April 17, 1861 (Scott referred to Lee as "the very finest soldier I've ever seen"). However, Virginia left the Union on that same day. Lee, though disapproving of secession, was hesitant at the possibility of taking up arms against his home state and asked if he could keep out of the war. Scott replied "I have no place in my army for equivocal men." Lee then resigned and went south to join the Confederacy.

Although Scott was born and raised in Virginia, he remained loyal to the nation that he had served for most of his life and refused to resign his commission.

The command of the Federal troops at Washington was given to Brigadier General Irwin McDowell.

At this time, public opinion throughout the North called for an immediate campaign to crush the rebellion quickly. Scott considered this wrong-headed and probably impossible. Instead, he drew up a plan to defeat the Confederacy by blockading Southern ports and sending an army down the Mississippi Valley. Scott's scheme was derided as the "Anaconda Plan", intended to crush the Confederacy slowly; eventually the actual Union victory followed its broad outlines.

1861 characterized map of Scott's "Anaconda Plan" to squeeze the South

But in July 1861, the pressure to march "Forward to Richmond" was overwhelming. Lincoln set aside Scott's plan and directed McDowell to attack in Virginia.

When Lincoln received news that the Union Army had been defeated at Manassas on July 21, 1861 he went to Scott's residence. Scott assumed responsibility for the Union defeat. General George McClellan took command of the army at Washington (now the Army of the Potomac).[35]

Scott's physical infirmities cast doubt on his fitness for command; his weight had ballooned to over 300 lbs, In a play on his old nickname, he was called "Old Fat and Feeble."

He also ran into conflict with President Lincoln and others who wanted to organize the army into divisions. Scott argued that in the Mexican War, no commands larger than brigades had been needed, and that none were needed now, even though the Army of the Potomac was more than triple the size of Scott's army in Mexico.[citation needed] McClellan, the ambitious new field commander, wanted Scott out, and had many influential political friends. Scott resigned on November 1, 1861. McClellan then succeeded him as general-in-chief.[36] Although officially retired, Scott was still occasionally consulted by Lincoln for strategic advice during the war.

General Scott lived to see the Union victory in the Civil War in April 1865. On October 4, 1865 he was elected as a Companion of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS), an organization of Union officers who had served in the Civil War. Scott assigned MOLLUS insignia number 27 but, for undetermined reasons, the insignia was never issued to Scott.

Scott served under every President from Jefferson to Lincoln, a total of fourteen administrations. Scott served a total of 53 years of active service as an officer - including 47 years as a general. Scott is one of a very few American officers who have served as a general in three major wars. (The others are Douglas MacArthur and Lewis B. Hershey.) Historians rank Scott highly both as a strategist and as a battlefield commander.

General Winfield Scott is one of very few US Army Generals to be honored on a US Postage stamp. He was the first General to appear on a postage stamp after Washington, who was portrayed as a general on an issue of 1861. The first Winfield Scott stamp issue was released to the public in 1870, four years after the General's death at West Point. The engraving depicts Scott in classic profile with an arc of 13 stars overhead and allegorical military weaponry at the bottom of the design. Because of the higher denomination of 24-cents, which was a considerable sum for a postage stamp in 1870, the stamp only had a printing of a little more than one million. Consequently surviving examples of this stamp are very scarce and quite valuable today. General Scott was honored again on the Army issue of 1937, one in a series of five commemorative stamps honoring notable Army heroes where Scott is depicted along with Andrew Jackson on the 2-cent stamp of this series. The Army and the Navy issues were very popular when released, had a much larger printing[44] and examples of this issue are still somewhat common today.[45][46]

^Chichetto, James Wm., "General Winfield Scott's Policy of Pacification in the Mexican American War of 1846–1848," Combat Literary Journal, Volume 5, Number 4, Fall/Oct. 2007, 4–5.

^Commenting on Taylor's initial occupation, Scott wrote to the Secretary of War, William Marcy:"Sir, our militia and volunteers [under Taylor], if a tenth of what is said be true, have committed atrocities – horrors – in Mexico, sufficient to make Heaven weep, and every American, of Christian morals, blush for his country. Murder, robbery - rape on mothers and daughters, in the presence of the tied up males of the families, have been common all along the Rio Grande. I was agonized with what I heard – not from Mexicans and regulars alone; but from respectable individual volunteers – from the masters and hands of our steamers." Chichetto, 5.

^In a private letter to William Robinson, Scott wrote about his Irish American soldiers:"In Mexico, we estimated the number of persons, foreigners by birth, at, about, 3,500, and of these more than 2,000 were Irish. How many had been naturalized I cannot say; but am persuaded that seven out of ten, had at least declared their intentions, according to law, to become citizens. It is hazardous, or may be invidious to make distinctions; but truth obliges me to say that, of our Irish soldiers – save a few who deserted from General Taylor, and had never taken the naturalization oath – not one ever turned his back upon the enemy or faltered in advancing to the charge. Most of the foreigners, by birth, also behaved faithfully and gallantly. Chichetto,5.

^On another occasion, Scott remarked to Robinson: "In my recent campaign in Mexico, a very large proportion of the men under my command were your country men (Irish), German, etc. I witnessed with admiration their zeal, fidelity, and valor in maintaining our flag in the face of every danger. Vying with each other, and our native-born soldiers in the same ranks, in patriotism, constancy, and heroic daring, I was happy to call them brothers in the field, as I shall always be to salute them as countrymen at home." Chichetto, 5.

Arndt, Jochen S., "The True Napoleon of the West: General Winfield Scott's Mexico City Campaign and the Origins of the U.S. Army's Combined-Arms Combat Division," Journal of Military History, 76 (July 2012), 649–71.